1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wipers having a wiper blade and an additional rotating scrubber element attached thereto. The invention also relates to scrubber elements selectively rotatable by hydraulic means such as turbines that can be attached to conventional wipers.
2. The Relevant Technology
Almost all motor vehicles sold today come with a standard set of windshield wipers. These wipers typically include a wiper blade made of rubber or the like, which is attached to a wiper housing so as to contact the windshield surface. The wiper housing is attached to a wiper arm extending from the motor vehicle. During use, the wiper arm causes the wiper housing to move back and forth across the windshield. This causes the wiper blade to push the rain, snow, or other debris away from the forward field of view of the driver. This, of course, is necessary so the driver can see the road ahead while driving during inclement weather. When the windshield becomes dirty while there is no precipitation, the driver can activate a washer pump that causes washer fluid to flow through a fluid line and spray onto the windshield to help the wipers remove the debris.
If the view through the windshield becomes blocked or even obscured for whatever reason, it can impact the driver's view and create a dangerous situation. This can occur, for example, when the wiper stops working or when the wiper blades become worn. It can also occur when something hits the windshield that the wiper is not able to remove, even when using washer fluid. The latter can occur, for example, when a car passes through a swarm of insects that splatter all over the windshield.
To aid in these situations, various after-market wipers have been designed that can replace stock wipers that come with the vehicle. These replacement wipers include scrubbing pads designed to scrub the windshield as the wiper passes back and forth over the windshield. The scrubbing pads help remove the foreign matter from the windshield, but they have significant disadvantages. For example, the scrubbing pads tend to wear out quickly and need to be replaced often. This can be very expensive. Furthermore, dry scrubbing pads can actually further obscure the view through the windshield by smearing the foreign matter further on the windshield. While the windshield washer fluid can be energized to wet the window, this only partially helps.
To help in the scrubbing action, various wipers have been designed to include a motor that can rotate or otherwise move the scrubber. While this can improve the scrubbing action, the scrubber can still wear out quickly. Furthermore, the motor must have electrical wires run to it. As a result, when replacing the original wipers a technician or other qualified person must modify the automobile to position and run the wires to the new wiper, which can be expensive and time consuming. The cost of the motor can also cause the wipers to be relatively expensive.
Accordingly, what is needed are wipers that can provide more scrubbing action for hard to remove debris and that can easily replace standard wipers but that will not wear out quickly and do not require much installation expertise.